Browse Category: *grr*

Snowed In

snowy road

We drove up I-80 last night in the rain and then eventually got some snow as we entered Auburn.  We planned to stay at Ryan’s mom’s house for the night and drive another hour up to the mountain this morning.  Well, things didn’t exactly go as planned.  Last night, we drove the 330xi through 6-inches of snow all the way through the windy narrow roads to the house and thought we were home free.  Then it happened…Ryan’s car (also 4WD) got stuck in a ditch and then we got stuck behind him because we stopped. It took a good hour to tow, push, and rev the cars out and up the driveway to the house. This is just a gratuitous photo of our car in the driveway with the racks installed.

330xi

We slept in the barn, which has a cute little 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment inside.  We brought the Aerobed and the Bangs brought their sleeping bags that I think held up in the cold better than our comforter.  Koa didn’t get much sleep last night b/c he couldn’t find a warm spot to sleep…that was until he wedged himself between Bang and Vyl’s sleeping bags.

sniffin the tractor

This morning Koa had a good time running with the horses, sniffin’ the grounds, and peeing on the snow.  We got up early and piled into one car and headed out.  We didn’t make it past the first hill outside of the driveway and got stuck again.

towing

Oh boo….so Ryan’s mom’s truck towed him out and now we’re hanging out in a warm toasty house watching Cars.  We had friends driving up this morning and ended up stuck on I-80 with a 4-hour wait only to turn around.  So, I guess things could be worse.  I’m not sure how or when we’ll going home but we’ll sit here for now.  I guess it’s a good thing I got Monday off after all.

May take a while…

…to post photos.  I took quite a few and I’m trying to get over this crazy sickness that started on Christmas Day.  I’ve had chills, a low fever, and body aches and have been on ibuprofen and acetaminophen for the past four days around the clock.  I’m hoping that I’ll feel well enough to get to work tomorrow.  Going back to work sucks but I suppose I should feel grateful to have a steady job in such a crappy economy.

Now what?

I ended up falling asleep around 2:00 am this morning and was awoken around 3:47 am to catch our 4:00 am cab pick-up.  It was pretty painful but we made it to the airport by 4:20.  We checked in at the kiosk to discover that our 6:00 am flight was delayed an hour.  Already?!  We were in doubt about making our connection so we called AA and they told us to go to the ticket counter to see if we could get rebooked on a different flight.  Well, we had to leave the security gate and stand in line for an hour (missing all the 6 am flights) and the ticket guy said that we would have enough time to make the connection.  It would be close but we’d have enough time.  So, we stood in line for nothing, went through security once more, and boarded our 7:00 am plane.  All was good again until the pilot announced that his co-pilot was running late and that he’d be arriving in 25 minutes.  What?!  All was lost by then and we were screwed.  We sat on the tarmac for an additional hour and didn’t take off until 8:00 am.  We just arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth at 1:00 CST and totally missed our 1:05 connection to Belize….the only flight to Belize for the day.  Boo…  American Airlines blows.

So, we’re going to figure out what’s next.  Stay tuned!

My Very Bad Monday

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My Monday started out kinda slow.  I had a hard time getting up and then had to wait a really long time for my train.  When I arrived at work, I realized that I didn’t have my lunch bag.  On one of the rare occasions that I actually pack a lunch, I manage to leave my bag on the train.  Boo….  So someone in SF had an awesome chicken and rice lunch along with half a PB&J sammich, 3 Balance Bars, and a yogurt.  *grr*  He or she also scored an awesome neoprene lunch bag and StainSaver container.

As if my day couldn’t get any worse, my 11:15 patient came in and was quite a handful.  He’s a 9-year-old who was exposed to drugs in utero, which has resulted in erratic behaviors and short bursts of calmness and aggression.  Well, during one of his moments of calmness, he decided to explode in aggression while I wasn’t looking.  He clawed me in the neck and dug his nails into my right arm.  I shrugged it off for the remainder of the session but when it was over, I looked in the mirror to find my neck covered in red lines along with a bleeding mark where he broke the skin.  I also had a large bruise on my upper right arm with 2 more bleeding marks.

Wow, I got a real beating today.  I was ready to just clean up the wounds and put some bandaids on but I had to go to Employee Health to fill out some forms and get checked out.  So, now I have a large bandage on my arm, a new bottle of ibuprofen, and an ice pack for the bruise.  I must have unconsciously known something was going to happen today because for some random reason I decided to take some band-aids to work to keep in my desk this morning.   My Hello Kitty band-aids sure did come in handy today!  AND it’s time for me to buy a new lunch bag.

I’m a total idiot.

This weekend was going to be a well-choreographed endeavor for me. I was supposed to fly down to LA on Thursday night, catch up with friends and family on Friday, shoot a wedding in Yorba Linda on Saturday, fly back to SF that same night, and shoot a second wedding on Sunday. Phew! It was going to be rough but I was really looking forward to it. Until…I got a phone call from the Bride of Sunday’s wedding. She called as I was about to board BART this morning with a slight tone of panic in her voice. This is how it went:

Bride: “Hi! I just wanted to call to give you my cell phone number.”

Me: “Oh great! Thanks!”

Bride: “Uh, I also got your email from last night and was a little confused.” …..
“You wrote ‘See you Sunday’.” ….. “The wedding is on Saturday!!”

Me: “Oh! Why did I think it was Sunday? No problem. I’ll see you Saturday at 11:15 as scheduled. ”

Bride: “OK, I was going to have a panic attack for a second there.”

Me: “No worries. I’ll be there on Saturday.”

*click*

I ran onto the train, plopped myself down in the nearest seat, and nearly threw up in my lunchbag. HOW DID I DOUBLE-BOOK MYSELF?!!!! So as I steamed for the 22-minute ride through the tunnel (with no cell-phone reception), I couldn’t help feeling a stream of anxiety, disappointment, and confusion all at the same time. My head was spinning and that felt like the longest BART ride EVAR!! As soon as I got off the train, I ran to the curb for my shuttle, didn’t see it, so I sat down and called the Brother to break the news. He was going to have to fly solo on Saturday and I wasn’t going to be flying down to LA after all. AAAck!

Brother – Thank you for being so understanding. Your sister is a complete idiot. I owe you a fat dinner and trip to Napa Valley.

**If you are a potential client reading my blog, please don’t let this hiccup deter you from considering me as your photographer. Trust me, this was a complete brain fart that will NEVER EVER happen again.

It’s way too early.

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The time change is killing me. It kills me every year. I have a hard enough time getting up in the morning as it is.  So when the country forces us to “Spring Forward”, I am NOT a happy camper.

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To make matters worse, my commute to work has become increasingly frustrating. I don’t understand what’s going on but Muni has been suckin’ and I never seem to catch the hospital shuttle at the right time. In fact, today I left my house earlier than usual in hopes of having some extra time to prepare for my day but it do me any good since my usual 45-minute commute took me a whole 60 minutes with hardly any time to sip my coffee and inhale my Balance Bar. It was an emergency breakfast day instead of my usual warm bowl of oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. Anyway, it’s about 10-something right now and I’m going to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better.